The Digital Neighborhood

from Where Ya At?: Composing Identity Through Hyperlocal Narratives
by Devon Fitzgerald Ralston -from the book: The New World of Composing


The Digital Neighborhood
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In the digital world, there are an astonishing number of ways to complete the everyday tasks that make up our everyday lives. We can shop online for almost anything, and pay our bills. We use the internet to access school work and to turn in assignments. No longer do we have to stand in line at the DMV to renew our driver’s licenses and register our cars, we can do both online in a matter of minutes. This ability to complete everyday tasks online goes along with many other facets of our lives that have been electronically replicated. There is an idea that our social media interactions are the equivalent of living in a digital neighborhood.

The Digital Neighborhood, as Devon Ralston’s theory goes, believes the everyday neighborhood has moved from one of a physical nature to one of a digital nature. We exist and interact with each other to such a degree online, that we are, by this virtual proximity, neighbors. As he says, “Historically, then, neighbors are created from having location in common. As a concept, neighborhood connotes group connection, similarity and distinction.”

The internet acts like a virtual city, where we live a growing part of our lives. Social media programs, like Facebook, have become the house we live in. This digital neighborhood does not have the usual boundaries, such as streets and wooden fences. The boundaries of the digital neighborhood come from “the people who live within them and the identities they form together as a social group.”

This new age of the digital neighborhood allows us to connect and interact with family and friends located anywhere in the world in a convenient fashion. You can message someone, maybe even see what was new on your brother’s page. You can even invite your best friend, located thousands of miles away, over to take a look at your Instagram family album. My photo gives you an example of my Facebook neighborhood. It consists of family and friends, and I can interact with ease. The digital neighborhood allows us to do this, and yet, it still retains the nostalgic feel of an old-fashioned neighborhood. Go ahead. Take a look over your digital neighbor's digital fence and say hello!

-Bradley Civick